


Day 49

by Amemait



Category: The Bill
Genre: F/M, GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-10
Updated: 2013-07-10
Packaged: 2017-12-18 07:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/877249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amemait/pseuds/Amemait
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mentions Hot Fuzz, Life on Mars, mentions The Sweeney and The Avengers (T.V. series, not the comics) as fiction.</p><p>A repost from a commentfic I did for one of miss_zedem 's promptathons a while back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 49

Little Jimmy Carver, when he was about seven, wanted to be an archaeologist – discovering fossils, and dinosaur bones separated by the Atlantic Ocean, and new kinds of birds and maybe even exploring the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

Then one day while he was out running in the forest with his old dog, he tripped over on a tree root and tumbled down. He yelped in surprise, then screamed as he felt his right leg break.

Bones didn’t hold any more fascination for him.

That was okay though. History was boring anyway.

\--

When Jimmy was eight, he wanted to be a rock star. His name would be legend, he’d live forever, alive on the stage. He’d play in Amsterdam, Washington, Toronto, London – anywhere his muse took him.

Jimmy couldn’t sing, couldn’t play an instrument. He didn’t like having to talk in front of big crowds, as his speech day proved.

Jimmy wanted to be famous, but instead he started learning Italian.

But that was cool anyway, because suddenly his English marks shot up, and his Dad increased his pocketmoney.

\--

Jimmy was ten, and he wanted to be like Steed from The Avengers. He wanted the umbrella, the voice, he wanted to save the world from strange attackers and have a mysterious past as a spy. His dad would let him stay up past his bedtime, just so he could watch it; he’d protest that he wasn’t sleepy, that he was wide awake, oh, just let me finish this episode!

Then one day, he had to get up before dawn so he could go on a Scout camp, but he’d been up too late the night before, and when he did wake up, it was too late.

His dad didn’t let him stay up any more after that.

Everybody else came back from the camp and said it was absolutely awful, Jimmy was lucky he’d gotten out of it.

\--

It was a stormy day when Jimmy was eighteen and happened to glance at the newspaper. There were two cops on the front page, and that was weird.

One was a story of bravery: Detective Inspector Sam Tyler, missing, presumed dead in a tragic car accident involving a canal. Jimmy hoped that the man might have just hit his head under a bridge or something, and was wandering about with amnesia.

Police Sergeant Derek Angel was not a story of bravery: Selling drugs to students was hardly brave. It was dumb, that was what it was.

Kathleen wanted him to come over to her house that evening and watch Tomorrow Never Comes with her.

Jimmy broke up with her the next week, apologising with flowers and chocolates and she strangely seemed to understand.

When the phone rang while he was watching The Sweeney, and he answered, it was Kathleen. She wanted to treat him like a best friend now, and Jimmy found he understood that too.

\--

Jim Carver knew he was a police officer the moment he put on the uniform. Over the phone, Kathleen was delighted for him; she was even more delighted in person, hugging him in his uniform at his graduation ceremony.

When he graduated Hendon, it was the proudest moment of his life.

He hadn’t planned on being a copper, but he was happy to be one.


End file.
